SECRETARY CLINTON: Good afternoon. Today, I am privileged once again to host the foreign minister of the Netherlands. We had an excellent meeting with the prime minister and the President in the Oval Office today. The Dutch and the Dutch Government are among our greatest friends and allies on so many important matters. And we had a very broad-ranging discussion on a number of critical issues this morning, which we will get into even more depth on again this afternoon. So I welcome Maxime back to the State Department.

FOREIGN MINISTER VERHAGEN: Thank you very much indeed, Hillary. I would like to thank Madame Secretary for her warm hospitality. Indeed, we had very good discussions this morning, the President and my prime minister. And we will continue to discuss on these issues.

We share a lot of values and we have a lot in common, a common history for 400 years, as the first Dutchman landed on the shores of Manhattan. And we’ve also seen this morning, in the discussions between the prime minister and the President, that on issues like the Middle East, like Afghanistan, we have a lot to do in common. We share the same challenges, but we have also the same ideas on how to deal with these issues.

So I look forward to the second meeting with you and to continue the discussions we had this morning.